Have an i5-2500k, want my machine to be faster

Fussgangerzone

I currently use an i5 2500k, for socket 1155. It runs reliably, but I wish it was faster.
At the very least I intend to put a new fan on it and up the clock a bit.

I'm also considering the benefits of upgrading the processor, but this is where I get out of my depth.
Is 1155 going to be around for a good while, or is there some new socket I should be thinking about?
Can I expect much bang for my buck? I'd spend around ~€200 on a new cpu if I was going to see an improvement. Maybe something like the i5-3470, but would I notice much difference?

I do a lot of web dev, and would often have maybe five programs running at a time for work, including Photoshop and Eclipse-type software.

Is the smartest money here spent on a CPU and a cooler, or should I be thinking about my ram and graphics card as well?
(8gb and a HD 6950)

I play games on it too, but for the moment, I'm more concerned with overall system performance rather than fps. I might do something for graphics later in the year.

yawhat!

You would notice no difference, 2500K, 3570K and 4670K are all pretty similar performance wise. There is little difference between them.

Next step up would be a xeon or an i7. New Intel socket is 1150.

You could probably use another 8GB of Ram if you have all them programs running. An SSD would be good too but not sure how much it improves photoshopn and other apps though apart from launch times for all your applications. And obviously a cooler and overclock the CPU if your motherboard supports overclocking.

Any idea how much ram your system is using?

Serephucus

What speed is your 2500K at at the moment?

uncle_sam_ie

That's what I have, OC'd to 4.5 GHz. There is no point in upgrading it unless you need hyperthreading. Use the money to upgrade your GPU or maybe invest in something like a mechanical keyboard. I wouldn't consider upgrading mine until at least Skylake comes out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture)

Fussgangerzone

Serephucus wrote: »

What speed is your 2500K at at the moment?

It's the default speed. Didn't want to overclock it with the stock fan.

Fussgangerzone

yawhat! wrote: »

You could probably use another 8GB of Ram if you have all them programs running. An SSD would be good too but not sure how much it improves photoshopn and other apps though apart from launch times for all your applications. And obviously a cooler and overclock the CPU if your motherboard supports overclocking.


Any idea how much ram your system is using?

I'd say you're right about ram, work would be find for it eventually. I've never really tacked it's use under pressure, you know yourself, you're to worried about everything else in these occasions. I'll try and make a point of tracking it the next day I've a lot on though.

Been building up to buying an SSD for a while now, for the boot time as much as anything else!

ShadowHearth

Upgrading 2500k does not make financial and performance sense at this stage. It's a beast of CPU with over clocking putting it in to beast+ mode. To make it even look better other 2 generation that came after have very minimal increase in speed or even none when you count in overclocking.

As mentioned before: get Ssd, more ram or beef up gpu. You will get more bang for your money.

eoin91

As everyone has said, avoid buying a new CPU, unless task manager is showing 80%+ usage on the CPU when your system is feeling slow (which would be difficult to do even with all those programs running).

Similar situation with your ram, unless your using 80%+ when your system is running slow then don't bother as your not even using all that you currently have.

Maybe for the next few days when your running multiple programs like that leave task manager open and monitor your CPU and ram use. If they are getting utilised heavily for long periods of time only then start thinking about upgrading them.

If most of your work is development work then upgrading your GPU is not going to help much, photoshop can make use of OpenGL so you could set photoshop to use your GPU for some processing but if that is currently not the case then no need to upgrade the GPU.

Chances are an SSD will help the most, both with boot times, file loading, application loading and with photoshop saving files and effects but watch task manager for a while to really tell. For the GPU possibly download MSI afterburner or any other companies GPU monitor and it will let you know how much you are utilising the GPU and monitor it like you would the CPU and ram.

Don't throw money into a pit without research first.

H3llR4iser

Fussgangerzone wrote: »

It's the default speed. Didn't want to overclock it with the stock fan.

I would try it if I were you; I'm not familiar with the 2500k, but I have a 3570k bumped up to 4.2Ghz with the stock cooler. Been using it for a year with no issue whatsoever and temperatures very rarely get up in the 60s under heavy load.

There's a lot of scaremongering online about how supposedly bad the stock cooler is, but in truth it gets the job done - of course, I would suspect it not to be suitable for extreme overclocking, but for just the extra few hundred Mhz it works well, possibly aided by the fact that a 25 degree day is considered sweltering hot in Ireland

ZeroThreat

H3llR4iser wrote: »

I would try it if I were you; I'm not familiar with the 2500k, but I have a 3570k bumped up to 4.2Ghz with the stock cooler. Been using it for a year with no issue whatsoever and temperatures very rarely get up in the 60s under heavy load.

There's a lot of scaremongering online about how supposedly bad the stock cooler is, but in truth it gets the job done - of course, I would suspect it not to be suitable for extreme overclocking, but for just the extra few hundred Mhz it works well, possibly aided by the fact that a 25 degree day is considered sweltering hot in Ireland

I've built a pc with a 3570-k a little over a year ago, replaced the standard fan with a larger one with a big heatsink (hr-02) I think it was.

However, I never got round to actually overclocking it. Is it a difficult long drawn out process, and what is the optimum overclock speed for this cpu?

H3llR4iser

ZeroThreat wrote: »

I've built a pc with a 3570-k a little over a year ago, replaced the standard fan with a larger one with a big heatsink (hr-02) I think it was.

However, I never got round to actually overclocking it. Is it a difficult long drawn out process, and what is the optimum overclock speed for this cpu?

Depending on your mainboard, it can be pretty straightforward. The "K" processors are actually thought for overclocking as their multiplier is unlocked - which means you can change the CPU frequency without altering the FSB, which has a number of advantages stability-wise.

As for the process itself, again it depends on your mainboard - many of them will have a very user-friendly menu in the BIOS setup screen, allowing you to bump up the CPU multiplier. There should also be an "auto" voltage option, if you go for small overclocks like mine.

Things only really start to become convoluted if you wish to go for big OCs

ZeroThreat

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Depending on your mainboard, it can be pretty straightforward. The "K" processors are actually thought for overclocking as their multiplier is unlocked - which means you can change the CPU frequency without altering the FSB, which has a number of advantages stability-wise.

As for the process itself, again it depends on your mainboard - many of them will have a very user-friendly menu in the BIOS setup screen, allowing you to bump up the CPU multiplier. There should also be an "auto" voltage option, if you go for small overclocks like mine.

Things only really start to become convoluted if you wish to go for big OCs

My board is an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4. I haven't gone into bios since I first built the PC however so I'll need to reacquaint myself

Would upping to speed to about 4.0 Ghz be regarded as a 'small' overclock?

..Brian..

Yea, you should be able to knock 4.5GHZ out without breaking a sweat on the CPU and MOBO and cooler. Plenty of tutorials on Youtube, search for overclock 2500k Z77 Extreme 4.

eoin91

ZeroThreat wrote: »

My board is an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4. I haven't gone into bios since I first built the PC however so I'll need to reacquaint myself

Would upping to speed to about 4.0 Ghz be regarded as a 'small' overclock?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1198504/complete-overclocking-guide-sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-asrock-edition

I have the same board and that thread and tutorial should be able to guide you through start to finish on how to overclock the board.
4.0 Ghz would be small enough for a sandy bridge chip (2500k) but like my previous comment without checking if your CPU is the limiting factor, overclocking the chip may not help speed up your computer any noticeable amount.